E-mail: Ely gives Raucci ‘just a heads up’

Here is Staff writer Paul Nelson’s final story on Friday’s explosive testimony at Steve Raucci’s trial:

School Superintendent Eric Ely gave Steven Raucci a “heads up” he was the focus of a criminal probe, according to evidence presented when a State Police detective took the stand in the retired school employee and CSEA union leader’s trial.

Peter Minahan testified Friday that such a tip would only have hampered the investigation by a task force of law enforcement agencies into Raucci’s alleged violent behavior.

“It was a difficult investigation to begin with, and that would have complicated it even more. He would be looking over his shoulder,” Minahan said, noting the vandalism and bombings under scrutiny were quick hits done in the dark in mostly rural areas.

District Attorney Robert Carney had earlier projected and read an e-mail from Ely to Raucci on July 28, 2008, which read:

“Just a heads up on these allegations. We need to talk about taking a head on approach pretty soon.”

The disclosure was the first time in Raucci’s trial on terror and arson charges that written evidence showed the school district’s top administrator was aware of accusations of wrongdoing against Raucci.

Two Board of Education members and a former member reached Friday by phone said they had not been aware of Ely’s e-mail to Raucci mentioning the investigation.

Former board member Joyce Wachala said she did not recall any reference to it in a lengthy report on the Raucci case commissioned by the school board and delivered to members in July. She initially said she wasn’t surprised, but later revised her assessment after hearing the text of Ely’s e-mail and Minahan’s testimony.

“I am shocked,” she said. “It’s too bad that it’s coming out in a criminal investigation. I’m afraid to see what else is going to come out.”

Board Vice President Diane Herrmann said Friday, “Nothing would surprise me at this point. I have faith in the legal system. After the Raucci trial concludes, the school board will have to address many issues with the administration.”

Board President Maxine Brisport, who declined to comment specifically on Friday’s revelations in court, said the “entire situation has raised many concerns.”

Carney said in December his investigation hadn’t turned up evidence that school administrators did anything illegal in the course of their relationships with Raucci.

Ely could not be reached for comment late Friday, but in comments to a reporter in Arlington, Mass., where he is a candidate for a superintendent’s job, he said he did confront Raucci about allegations he harassed a former athletic director with explosives and slashed tires but there was little else he could do.

“Nobody ever had any evidence, except for suspicion that anything was going on,” he told The Arlington Advocate. “I didn’t have any proof.”

Minahan recounted for jurors how in August 2008 he snatched a fork from a diner that later yielded DNA evidence linking Raucci to vandalism in which a cigarette intended to light an explosive was left at Laura Balogh’s Schodack home.

Balogh, who works in health benefits for the county CSEA unit, was allegedly targeted because she broke off a relationship with Joanne DeSarbo, a former CSEA county president who was close friends with Raucci.

At the time, Raucci was schools facilities director and president of the local CSEA unit, and fighting to hold onto power at the union.

The device never detonated and became evidence after it was found at the home on Jan. 12, 2007.

The prosecution presented phone records detailing cellphone conversations between Raucci and DeSarbo the night Balogh’s home was vandalized. Minahan testified that from about 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., there was no activity on Raucci’s phone. On DeSarbo’s phone, he said the two were talking almost nonstop until about 8:20 p.m. and after that the next call DeSarbo made was after 11 p.m.

Balogh testified Thursday that she received a frantic call around 10 p.m. from her daughter Jaimie, informing her about the damage.

Defense attorney Ronald DeAngelus did not cross-examine Minahan, but DA Carney told the judge he may call Minahan back to the stand in the future.

Earlier in the day, Patrick Paratore, who worked closely with Raucci as the district’s facilities and health safety assistant, provided more information about Raucci’s conduct and relationships with people he revered and reviled.

Paratore told the panel that Raucci routinely swapped e-mails with Ely and former school board President Jeffrey Janiszewski and that Raucci and Janiszewski had regular coffee meetings.

Raucci wrote in one of the e-mails that he and Ely were a lot alike in that they both “like to win and tell it like it is.” But the one difference was that if Raucci didn’t like a person, he made them go away while Ely had to wait until they died of old age, according to the Raucci e-mail.

Paratore recalled that Raucci gave DeSarbo “a significant amount of money,” between $500 and $800, either sometime in 2007 or 2008.

In late 2008, Paratore said he saw an explosive device in a plastic plant on a cabinet near the refrigerator in Raucci’s office. The prosecution witness said it looked like a “used toilet paper roll with a wick.” Another time, Paratore testified, he saw Raucci “fumbling with and throwing it up in the air like a baseball.”

The facilities health and safety assistant also recounted seeing Raucci with an explosive in the center console or on the door compartment of his school vehicle.

On cross-examination, DeAngelus sought to show that it wasn’t bad to maintain a good working relationship with co-workers. He also worked to chip away at Paratore’s credibility by asking him why he gave a Schenectady address of a colleague when he took the civil service test when he lives in Colonie. The county has a residency requirement.

Paratore said he had a lease at the place in Schenectady.

Mark Coluccio also testified for the prosecution, saying he washed Raucci’s 2006 Dodge pickup truck every Friday from 2008 until the defendant was arrested on arson charges in February of last year.

Coluccio, a maintenance worker for the school district, recalled seeing explosives either in the door panel or in the cup holder of the middle console panel of the pickup truck.

He also told jurors Raucci talked with him about “how to manipulate the powder for the amount of damage” on the explosive, but never elaborated on how to do it.